Can your fingerprints change ?

Scarring would indeed alter the print. But other than that, no.

Wikipedia explains:

Scar tissue is not identical to the tissue that it replaces and is usually of inferior functional quality. For example, scars in the skin are less resistant to ultraviolet radiation, and sweat glands and hair follicles do not grow back within scar tissue.

I agree with @robmandu that unless you get a severe scar on your fingertips, or around that area, your fingerprints will not change, as everyone’s fingertips are unique.

Some “bad guys” do indeed scar or burn their fingers to remove their fingerprints. However, nowadays the authorities often look for matches from other parts of the hands (in a few cases even an ear print was used), and the scars themselves may create a unique and therefore identifiable pattern.

And then there are the improvements in DNA technology. While not quite as useful as CSI and its geographical television clones would have us believe (oh, the magic of Hollywood!), it can still over-ride a ne’re-do-well’s lack of or change in fingerprints.

@kayysamm; That was not “the most retarded question ever” but you could have googled.

That wasn’t the most retarded question ever, and I’m glad you didn’t google, it’s more interesting to read a discussion sometimes.

I have some nasty scars on my fingertips, leaving me with some wacky print variations. On a similar note, by uncle works with chemicals which have made his fingerprints more pronounced (I know that this can be caused by a few things.)

The other day I was walking and got a piece of glass stuck in my flip flop and tried to pull it out. When I did that the glass slit my thumb there where the print would be. Thats where the whole topic came up.

I was wondering what if it scares, does my fingerprints changed.? I dont know kinda a a stupid thought but I was wondering it lol.

I have rubbed off all my prints on hands and feet before. And cut myself on fingers and feet. Rob answered it best, but if you’re curious about how rubbing your fingerprints off works…

I swam for basically for five hours a day every day when we had a pool as a kid, around the pool we had a poured cement patio that had a pitted finish. It was pretty abrasive. Over that summer, I wore off my toe prints and fingerprints, they didn’t get calloused because they were always wet, they just got buffed away. And it hurt like hell. No, I mean a lot.

I stopped swimming and they came back, just the way they were before. :)
In the meantime, I messed around and made fingerprints with an ink pad I had. Cause it looked so weird.

Severe scarring will alter it, minor scarring may not. I have a scar on my left thumb that’s the width of a hair or so, it’s a nothing scar. The ridges are intact, everything is the same, it’s just white and pulls the skin differently if you watch really close. But my print is unchanged.

But on the bottom of my heel, I had a hooked piece of glass go in and come out, it was interesting. So now, I have a dot scar on the bottom. Itty bitty, but definitely changed some of the ridges.